IP registrations exceed pre-pandemic levels, says IPOPHL

MANILA  -The number of intellectual property (IP) applications in the Philippines grew an annual 3.7 percent in 2022, registering a record-high of some 48,000 filings as numbers exceed pre-pandemic levels.

The Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) on Monday said applications lodged at their office totaled 48,259 last year, higher than the 46,558 filings in 2021.

The 2022 posting also exceeded the 47,328 applications in 2019, breaking the record of in 2019, the year before the global outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.

“The strong uptake in 2022 IP filings shows how aggressive businesses are in seizing opportunities in the more upbeat economy and the digitalization of business interactions as intensified by the pandemic,” IPOPHL Director General Rowel S. Barba said, and making reference to the Philippines 7.6 percent economic growth in 2022.

“More Filipinos are beginning to see the competitive value of having a degree of control over their most prized assets: the products of their minds, their IPs. More businesses and entrepreneurs are integrating IP into their strategies for success not despite the pandemic and other economic and environmental challenges in our midst but because of them,” he said further.

Types of IP applications

IPOPHL data showed that trademark applications still led the growth, totaling 41,235 and accounting for 85 percent of the total.

Trademark applications also grew by 4 percent year-on-year, 61 percent or 25,253 of which were by filed residents, while 39 percent or 15,982 were made by non-residents.

The IP-rights body said that the bulk of trademark filings were in pharmaceutical, health and cosmetic products, accounting for the largest share by sector at 18.4 percent.

It was followed by agricultural products and services with 16.6 percent, and scientific research, information and communication technology with 14.9 percent.

Patents -which IPOPHL characterized as an indication of the appetite to bring possibly commercially viable inventions to market- had the second largest share at 9 percent, with 4,403 applications filed.

Patent applications also registered the fastest growth among the four IP application types listed by IPOPHL, increasing by an annual 9.3 percent.

Non-residents accounted for 89 percent with 3,918 applications, while filings by resident made up 11 percent or 485 of the total.

Top patent applications were in pharmaceuticals with a share of 28.9 percent, organic fine chemistry with 12.1 percent, and digital communications with 8.3 percent

In contrast, filings for utility models (UMs) -which provide patent-like protection at a shorter duration and with a less rigorous application process- declined to 1,386 from 1,615 applications.

Majority of UMs filed were in the fields of food chemistry, garnering a 44.6 percent share. The other special machines category followed with an 8.8 percent share, while basic materials chemistry had a 4.9 percent stake.

Filings for Industrial designs (ID), which protect the unique appearance of a product, also eased to 1,235 applications from the previous year’s 1,265 submissions.

The top categories for ID applications were in means of transport or hoisting (19.7 percent), packages and containers for the transport or handling of goods (8.7 percent), and furnishing (8.3 percent).

Copyright registrations

Registrations for copyright grew by 73 percent, with the total numbers of listings jumping to 3,706 from just 2,141 in 2021, with the IPOPHL pointing to creators scrambling to find better ways to protect their copyright in online and physical markets as the reason for the surge.

It added that the growth in 2022 was driven mainly by registration for books, pamphlets, articles, e-books, audio books, comics, novels and other writings, accounting for 36 percent of the total.

This was followed by registrations for literary, scholarly, scientific and artistic works with 19.7 percent, while listings for drawings, paintings, architectural works, sculpture, engraving, prints, lithography or other works of art, models or designs for works of art stood at 8.6 percent.

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